Hi Iowa! The Dallas museum of art is open late on Thursdays - it is a cool museum - and down town - I am not sure who is playing at the house of blues or the profit bar - they are both down town and get some good gigs in ... That could be fun -

North park and the galleria are both high end - I prefer the galleria and honestly in December it will be stunning - they have a beautiful tree - I would go there over north park - there are all sorts of stores ( I like that Nordstrom)

The holocaust museum is down enough - but only opened til 5:00, the 6th floor museum is opened until 6:00 if you get done early

The Gaylord hotel has a pretty amazing Christmas set up if you wanted to take a cab over there - google it - very child friendly but some of us are grown kids

Do you mean the taxi ride is out of your budget or the shopping?

North Park is similar shopping as the Galleria. I like North Park far better. Galleria is very pretty at Christmas though and is still a good place to shop.

<<<Do you mean the taxi ride is out of your budget or the shopping? >>>

The shopping. Everything I saw on Galleria pretty much screamed major name brands that I can't even begin to afford. I thought North Park was aimed more at mid-range stores?? If they're actually similar then I can look at the store directories again.

I've learned that the mid-range stores (Younkers or Kohls in my area) that are in larger cities often get items in earlier and have a better selection than what we have locally. They also often have a better selection for petites. That sometimes lets me get a bit nicer stuff while still staying budget friendly.

Thanks for the ideas of the museums or the Gaylord hotel! Unfortunately I think the schedule will go late enough that the museums are out (and I've never understood art so the art museum is out too).

Honestly by that point I may just want to curl up in bed and sleep for 12+ hours straight!

If you want to shop, I like your ideas for North Park or Nieman's downtown.

Dallas also now has a relatively new communter train system, (DART) and one of the lines will get you to North Park, with a shuttle that takes you right to and from a mall entrance. Defintely cheaper than a cab, and kind of a neat city experience.

For more details and trip planning, the DART website is www.dart.org. DART really wants people to use the system, and they are good about helping with trip planning.

IR - call me - we can have a glass of wine.

The downtown Neiman's closes at 6 on Tuesdays. I definitely agree with North Park--a beautiful mall with lots of upscale stores but some lesser ones as well. DART is safe and easy to use. http://www.northparkcenter.com/